Biology

Physiology

Wooper is a mostly blue amphibious Pokémon that bears a resemblance to a real-life salamander known as an axolotl. Wooper stands upright on its small, round feet, and has a large, thick tail. Wooper also has purple-colored, branching gills coming out of the sides of its head, and what look like dark blue, curved gill-like markings on its torso. Wooper's head is large compared to its body, its mouth is wide and its eyes are small, round, and black in coloration.

Gender differences

Female Wooper have smaller gills on the sides of their heads.

Special abilities

The film covering Wooper's body when it walks on land is poisonous, and can cause a shooting pain if touched barehanded.

Behavior

Wooper tend to be dull-witted Pokémon as implied in Trouble in Big Town. They tend to be oblivious to their surroundings. They also share this trait with their evolution Quagsire. Wooper lives in cold water most of the time, but it will on occasion leave the water to search for food when the temperature cools in the evening. While walking on land, it coats its body with a slimy, toxic film that keeps its skin from dehydrating and insulates itself against the cold. In the water, Wooper partially buries itself in the mud at the bottom to sleep.

Pokédex entries

Wooper, the Water Fish Pokémon. Though they prefer to live in cold water, these appealing Pokémon forage for food on land. They are kept warm by a layer of insulating body fluid. Wooper is the pre-evolved form of Quagsire.

This concludes the entries from the original series.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

In Volume 8, a conman uses a swarm of Wooper as a part of his game stall.

In the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga

In the TCG

Other appearances

Out of all the Pokéfloats, Wooper spends the most time on-screen. It first appears when play is on Slowpoke's tail and it then floats past Sudowoodo, Snorlax, Venusaur, and Seel before finally floating away from play. While its head is small, players can also stand on the gills.

Origin

Wooper seems to be based on a larval axolotl, which have flat tails and feathery, external gills. Its Shiny sprite also matches its color to that of a larval or albino/leucistic axolotl.

Name origin

Wooper and Upa are derived from wooper looper, a marketing term created in Japan that started a pet salamander raising fad. Wooper loopers are the Japanese term for the larval stages of the axolotl, a species of salamander.